Book marketing guru John Kremer reports that one of his follows did a book signing at Costco.

The author thought his results were extraordinary.

“I sold 200 books over five days and earned $3.33 per book to be paid in 90 days so that is $666 divided by 5 = $133 per day. I added 26 people to my email list for future books. I signed up three book clubs that are future sources of sales at retail price. I removed six cases of books from storage and got them in the hands of readers.”

I don’t know about you, but making $133 a day sounds pretty horrible. If he made $133 a day for 200 work days a year, that would equal about $26,000. He didn’t include his travel expenses or publishing expenses in that number either. So he actually took home less.

I think cashiers at Costco make more money per hour.

Moral of the story?

Books are great way to get higher fees as speakers, consultants and coaches. But they are a rotten way to make money unless you sell a couple hundred thousand of them. And there are very few people on this planet who can make that claim.

Before you write your book, think of all the costs you will have and the results you hope to get. If it is worth it, then go for it.